


Cherry Soda and Shenanigans

by KareziCaptain (rogueofheart)



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: F/M, FOR VIVIEN YAY, Human!Stuck, Karezi - Freeform, KarkatTerezi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-10-07
Updated: 2012-10-08
Packaged: 2017-11-15 19:19:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,218
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/530789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rogueofheart/pseuds/KareziCaptain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Are you fucking deaf or something? Help me out here!” You shout, before she snorts and you look at the table and realize that the book was written in braille. </p>
<p>Again, the girl giggles and you look up towards the sky pleading for some sort of help for the clusterfuck you have just gotten yourself in.</p>
<p>“Getting warmer!” She says cheerfully, as she waves a hand in front of her face teasingly and your palm connects with your forehead.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ghostyKitten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostyKitten/gifts).



Damnit, it smelled like quiet and impatience in this whole building. Karkat Vantas had spent almost all spring looking for somewhere he could spend his days of summer actually scraping by and getting some cash. Being in a small ass town, it was almost impossible to find a decent job that you actually enjoyed and paid okay.  Don’t be ridiculous. Karkat Vantas, working in a bookstore. It was almost comical.   
  
The door jammed and you shoved your shoulder against it to unstick it, where you walked into the office. You was supposed to just be picking up your stuff today, but undoubtedly they would probably rope you in for staying in for the afternoon. Only five minutes in this hell and you already hated it. It was too quiet, and you wanted to make some sort of sound just to see if anyone else in this place knew what noise was.   
  
Shaking hands. Signing a few papers. Slipping on a name badge and reviewing what you went over in the training about a week ago. Stock the books, don’t bitch at everyone, no discounts to anyone ever, and if you work overtime don’t expect to get paid. You just don’t.   
  
It was an ass job, but it was only for the summer so you might actually have some pocket money and wouldn’t be stuck in the fucking house during all days of your vacation. “If you’d like, we are a little shorthanded today if you wouldn’t mind staying just for the afternoon. Not long at all, Mr. Vantas.”   
  
Bingo. Who called it?  
  
“Sure, fine, whatever.” You mumbled, throwing your bag down in the office and spinning around to face your overly eager boss. Her name was Samantha. Sure, she was nice, if not overly peppy. Those girls right out of college with nowhere else to go so they’re stuck here watching the new high school cheerleaders wistfully and pretending to love working in a bookstore because it makes them sound intelligent when in all actuality none of them ever read one piece by Shakespeare or wrote a thesis paper on it.  
  
You didn’t either. But hey, at least you admitted it. “Familiarize yourself with our system! Walk around the store and get the hang of where everything is located. We just need someone out making sure no chaos is happening, hun.” She said with another eager smile and you gave her a thumbs up to humor her and walked out of the office, hands shoved in your pockets.  
  
This was going to be a fantastic few months.   
  
***  
It was becoming routine. Alarm clock blaring at nine in the morning. Yourself slamming your hand around somewhere decently around the nightstand to try and shut the damn thing up. The familiar sound of dad yelling from downstairs that he was leaving for work, and slowly dragging yourself from your bed in search of caffeine and clothing.  
  
In all honesty, you were finding it more bearable. Getting used to your co workers took some time, getting used to the little brats that ran around in the Childrens section took even more time. As if children weren’t fucking annoying enough already.   
  
“What did you get this time, Mr. Vantas?” Your coworker, Porrim asks from behind one of the registers where you throw down your bag and slide a coffee towards her.   
  
“Don’t complain Maryam. I was in a rush this morning, enjoy your goddamn caffeine.” You mutter, sliding the paper cup towards her with an irritated sigh as you dump all your crap on the floor. It was ten degrees too hot in the building, there were way too many people in the store for ten in the morning, and it looked like you were going to be here all afternoon after you checked the shift schedule.  
  
You befriended Porrim after realizing how much she hates this job. She’d rather be off doing something productive, but she’s stuck in this ass bookstore just like you. Fresh out of high school, she planned to go to a very prestigious university. However, whenever she was told that her various views were frowned upon, she ignored the offer entirely.   
  
“If I was going to a place that I wasn’t allowed to speak, why would I even go? The question is obvious, Karkat. I wouldn’t.” She said to you one day, after asking her why she would leave an opportunity like that. In a way, you had to admire her a bit, no matter how fucking intimidating she was with long hair and various tattoos that sometimes made the overtly christian mothers at the bookstore stare in disgust. Porrim would just flip her hair and flaunt the fact that she’s not wearing a bra as she bagged the customer’s purchases.  
  
But yeah, she was pretty intimidating. But also the only tolerable person in this store. You roll your eyes as she takes care of an old man buying car and skin magazines at the same time, and prop your chin up with your hand before scanning the length of the store that morning.  
  
Wait a minute.  
  
Oh. Again?  
  
That girl is here again. That red haired girl. She’s always here, almost every morning without fail. She sits in the law section, but never buys anything. But here’s the weird thing. She never faces towards you; she always sits in the chair away from the registers.   
  
Occasionally she’ll come in with a friend, and you can hear her obnoxious laugh a mile away. You have no idea who she is, but that doesn’t stop you from constantly rolling your eyes whenever she walks in.   
  
“Honestly, what is your fascination with her?” Porrim asks you, inspecting the frayed ends on her bag as she glances up at you in curiousity. You raise your eyebrows in disgust. “Fascination? More like frustration. Isn’t it fucking illegal to come in here and sit without buying anything? She just sits there and reads!” You mutter, irritated as you don’t take your eyes off the back of her head. It’s annoying as hell as she’ll just take up your breathing space all the time. She’s been in here almost every day since you started working here, without fail.   
  
“Then go talk to her.” She suggests, raising an eyebrow. Oh hell no. “No, don’t you get the wrong fucking idea here, Maryam. She just annoys me is all. Who would spend all their free time in this hellhole anyways, even more their summer vacation? It’s weird as hell.” You say, annoyed as your fingers tap the desk that you both are sitting at.  
  
“Fine. Then go shelve these books that are conveniently in her section.” She says with a slight smirk, pushing a carton of books with her foot in your direction. You scowl at her. “Are you serious? Stop being stupid, it’s annoying as hell.”   
  
“Kaaarkat. Can you shelve those books Porrim kindly asked you to put up?” Samantha calls from a few tables over and you glare instantly at her.  
  
“No.” You mutter under your breath, before calling back yes to Samantha and you walk away, pushing the carton with a large look of irritation on your face and a smirk of victory on Porrim’s. You’re rolling your eyes as you approach the shelves, searching through authors and slipping books into the correct position. You refused to look at her. She was just reading.  
  
You pull the cart around the corner, and it bumps the end of the table where the girl’s drink was perched. The cherry soda slides off the corner almost in slow motion and soaks your pants and the carpet around it, and the girl looks up in surprise at the sudden commotion.   
  
“What the- are you fucking _kidding_ me?!” You shout, outraged as you search around for something to clean up the carpet and your jeans. Porrim is about to pass out from laughter a few feet away, and the girl just stares up at you with a bit of a grin herself.   
  
“Wh- are you seriously laughing at me?” She doesn’t respond, her grin just grows. “Will you get your goddamn head out of your ass and help me out here?” The soda is sinking through your jeans and oh god everything is sticky and gross and Porrim is still cracking up and Samantha is peeking her head out to see what all the commotion is about.  
  
The girl sets her book on the table and stands up, trying to avoid the sticky mess and you throw up your hands in defeat.   
  
“Are you fucking deaf or something? Help me out here!” You shout, before she snorts and you look at the table and realize that the book was written in braille.   
  
Again, the girl giggles and you look up towards the sky pleading for some sort of help for the clusterfuck you have just gotten yourself in.  
“Getting warmer!” She says cheerfully, as she waves a hand in front of her face teasingly and your palm connects with your forehead.


	2. Chapter Two

You slammed your car door shut, letting the sticky heat envelop you as you started the engine and relaxed a bit in the air conditioning. The cherry soda made your jeans stick to your ankles with a bit of a disgusting feel, and you rolled your eyes for almost the millionth time that morning. The air conditioning blew your bangs out of your face and you shut your eyes and sunk into the seat. God it was hot.  
  
Porrim eventually saw the severity of your situation earlier, coming over to help clean up the mess before Samantha saw it. You were pretty fucking thankful for that, you already screwed up quite a bit that morning and you didn’t even eat breakfast. It was not fun.  
  
Now you were on your lunch break, and quite honestly the temptation to stay in the car with the air conditioning blasting and getting a Big Mac five minutes before your break ended was largely inviting, but you sat up in your seat, pulling around to a deli a few streets down so you could get something to eat. It’s better than passing out, right? Kanaya and Porrim are just alike, with the reason that they’re related. They always remind you to eat, they both have that maternal instinct. Sometimes it’s comforting.  
  
Sometimes it’s a pain in the ass. Fucking Maryams.  
  
Kanaya was a friend of yours from school, however she was spending most of her summer vacation working as an assistant in a boutique. It was part of some volunteer thing she was doing, she was helping make dresses for women who couldn’t afford their own. Kanaya the good doer. You had to admit it was pretty cool, but you also wish she didn’t leave you here to fend on your own.  
  
So she left you with a ‘wanted’ ad, courtesy of her older sister, and toted off with a smile on her face. What a lucky little fuck. Porrim wasn’t bad, you got along with her well. She was kind enough to help you out with your little situation yesterday anyways, and for that you owe her one.  
  
Swerving into the parking lot, you do one of the worst parking jobs almost ever in front of the door and walk in. Your jeans are still stuck to your ankles and you fish your wallet out of your pocket while hastily ordering.  
  
Then you almost drop it.  
  
Because the girl sitting at a table to your left has an empty bottle of cherry soda and books on the table.   
You stiffen in shock, catching your wallet just in time and shoving it back in your pocket, spinning around so your back is to her.  
  
Shit. Shit shit shit shit SHIT. You just embarrassed yourself in front of this girl, who was already on your nerves. The weird thing was, in the library, she didn’t even seem offended. She sat there with this huge ass smirk on her face, finding the entire thing pretty hilarious as you stammered out apologies and promised to buy her a new drink and you didn’t mean to offend her or anything.  
  
And she just sat there and giggled like a fucking moron.   
  
You stared at her, mouth open, and Porrim dragged you away before you could yell at her some more. She scooped up her books and walked out with a slight wave. “I’m taking you up on that soda offer, I’m truly offended!” She called as she walked past the register and out the door. You thought she was fucking joking about the entire thing until the door slammed shut and you realized that she really did not give a shit that you didn’t even realize she was blind.   
  
For the next few hours, Porrim teased you ridiculous amounts also while comforting you at the same time, in that weird way that she does. It was a pain in the ass, but also helpful. You couldn’t change pants and your jeans were gross but you carried on your day until Samantha finally announced it was your lunch break. Now you’re here and she’s there and holy shit can this day even get any worse?  
  
Apparently so.  
  
“Oh, hey, check it out. It’s Mr. Shouty! Did you know they sell cherry soda here, it’s right in the glass case over there.” The words all come out in one long sentence with a high pitched laugh at the end, and her waving enthusiastically. Your face flushed and you pretended like you didn’t hear her, grabbing your sandwich and beginning to walk off before you feel a tap on your shoulder.  
  
God fucking dammit.   
  
“What do you even want?” You growl before spinning around to face her. She was one of the few people actually shorter than you, even if it was just an inch. She wore bright red glasses, that you couldn’t tell if they were sunglasses or some costume thing. But she’s had them on every single time you’ve seen her, so you’ll assume they’re just her weird ass glasses to go along with her weird ass self.  
  
“A refill.” She smirks, pointing to the bottles in the deli case and you roll your eyes. You did offer to do this, before you realized she was an absolute asinine psycho girl who just thought everything was absolutely hilarious. You make a big show of grabbing it, and slamming it on the counter for the employee to ring up. The girl snorts and you fish out money from your pocket, frustrated as you count out nickles.  
“Thanks Karkat!” The girl says and you freeze up, suddenly weirded out that she knows your name. Turning to glare at her, you shake your head. “Please tell me you’re not stalking me. How the everloving fuck do you know my name?” You mutter, annoyed and she points to the clearly obvious nametag stuck to your shirt.  
  
God, does she have to outsmart you in every single fucking way possible today? You’ve had enough of her and her weird clothes and bright hair and obnoxious laugh that seems to punctuate everything that you hear. Not only what she says, it seriously sounds like it just echos. Like out of a horror movie.  
  
You hand her the cold bottle of soda, giving her a quick middle finger salute before grabbing your sandwich and sulking to the other end of the place, sinking down into a booth and opening your lunch as she shrugs and goes back to her seat. It occurs to you that you didn’t even ask for her name.  
  
Wait. Honestly, why would you want her name? You would prefer to not see her ever again, because she’s simply gotten on your last nerve today and you don’t think you can put up with her again. You hide your face behind a menu, even though you’ve already gotten something to eat, and peer over the top to watch her. She’s blind, she can’t tell.  
  
Her hair is almost to her shoulders, and sticking out at every odd angle imaginable. Kanaya would scream if she saw the fact she was wearing red with her hair, she looked like a fucking stop sign. It was just...bright and obnoxious. The only one standing out in the middle of the place. Her fingers skimmed the paper, and she had a cane propped up against the chair beside her that had a dragon head fashioned to the top of it. It looked homemade, but also had quite a bit of detail put into it, you could tell.  
  
You had quite an eye for detail, anyways.  
  
Her head turns up, and you bring the menu up to cover your entire face as you curse to yourself. She’s blind, she couldn’t tell obviously. Don’t be so stupid, Vantas. You’re getting worked up over nothing. You take a bite out of your sandwich, and suck the rest of your drink out through a straw, making a loud slurping noise and having a man beside you reading the newspaper glance up in annoyance. He glares, and you shrug. “Teenagers...” He mutters underneath his breath, before putting another sugar in his coffee even though it’s fucking one in the afternoon and a billion degrees outside.  
  
Her gaze is still on you, even though you know she can’t see you. But it feels like she can, and you glare down at the corner of the table to avoid looking at her again because all hell would break loose if you had to even talk to her again oh shit she’s standing up please for the love of god don’t-.  
  
“Can I help you with something, Mr. Shouty?” She asks, walking up to your table and sitting in the seat across from you while you stare at her in shock. Did she seriously just come over and invade your personal space like that? Come on, you were content with eating your sandwich and sulking in peace and then this chick just comes and fucks up everything.   
  
“Hellllloooo? Anyone in there?” She waves a hand in front of your face, and you push her hand away. “What do you even think you’re doing? You can’t just come over and sit here. That’s fucking rude.” You say, annoyed when she giggles yet again. That sound is really getting on your nerves, and beginning to create a permanent headache.   
  
She ignores you, leaning the chair back and snatching the menu out of your hands. “I’m Terezi.” The girl says, the front legs of her chair slamming back down on the ground and the man beside you glares at the two of you again. Hey, this time it wasn’t your fault.   
  
Still. Terezi. “And I don’t give a fuck. What if I ask politely? Do you take to manners? Ms. Terezi, can you please get the fuck away from my table?” Snatching the menu back out of her hands, you point back to where she came from and she shrugs, standing up. “Fine, fine. Don’t get your already too small panties in a twist.” She says, grabbing her cane back and waving slightly. “See ya around, Karkles.” Terezi says, walking out the door quickly. You slam your face on the table.  
  
Karkles. _Karkles._  
This is not going to end well for you, is it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey here's this. Yay. I typed cherry soda way too many times in this.

**Author's Note:**

> Well I really just wrote this for Vivien but I might continue it so keep your eyes open for another chapter I guess.


End file.
